Page:Emanuel Swedenborg, Scientist and Mystic.djvu/80

66 on chemistry and physics with especial attention to mining matters and a sprinkle of philosophy. He had studied geology and mining, the latter in the Hartz Mountains, where he had made friends with a reigning prince and his brother. When he studied in England he sought out only scholars; now he probably realized the need of more worldly support if he were to impress the people at home.

Swedenborg's tussle with officialdom continued, and after new appeals to the Board he was seated as an assessor extraordinary without pay, in April, 1723. About a year later he turned down Benzelius's suggestion that he should allow his name to be put forward as successor to Celsius, the professor of astronomy at Upsala. Even though such a position carried with it a large salary, he did not now, he said, find any inclination in himself toward an academic career, and, furthermore, "to give up something in which I think I am functioning usefully would be indefensible."

At last, after more petty maneuvers by the jealous, all of which he met with great patience, persistence, and dignity, Emanuel Swedenborg was appointed a full assessor of the Board of Mines, though even then he had to begin with a smaller salary than was customary. That was July 15, 1724. (It was 1730 before he received the full salary.)

This was an event of signal importance in his career. He had not only acquired the status which was all-important in a country which he considered so status-ridden as Sweden, but he had got as close as he could to fulfilling his heart's desire—a chance to work in applied science for the building up of his country, worn tragically thin after almost a century of wars.

Assessor Swedenborg, thirty-six, had already accomplished a good deal. He was living now independently at Stockholm instead of at rural Starbo which he had not long before envisaged as his only refuge. He had helped found the first Scientific Society in Sweden, of which the six numbers of his Daedalus had been the first journal; he had carried out large-scale engineering works; he had made himself thoroughly conversant with nearly all that there was to be acquainted with in astronomy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology, and mining. He had published various scientific brochures or had the manuscripts discussed at the meetings of the Society.